


Composed Before a Million Universes

by SarahJeanne



Category: Love Actually (2003)
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-22
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-22 01:08:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarahJeanne/pseuds/SarahJeanne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three Ways Mark Could Have Been in Love with Peter</p>
            </blockquote>





	Composed Before a Million Universes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bette/gifts).



1.  
“Do you love him?” Sarah asks, and Mark’s mouth goes dry.

“I... Who? What?” His palms break out in a sheen of sweat.

“I just thought I’d ask the blunt question, in case it was the right one and you needed someone to talk to about it and no one has ever asked you so you’ve never been able to talk about it even though you might have wanted to.”

He can barely hear her over the sound of blood rushing in his ears.

“No, no, no is the answer,” Mark says. “No. Absolutely not.”

He forces himself to take a breath. And then another. Yes yes yes yes yes, echoing in his brain.

“So that’s a “no” then?”

Mark gets up and flees outside. He grips the railing of the balcony with both hands and gulps in fresh air. He focuses on the cold metal under his palms until they are numb.

When he walks back inside, his hands burn as the blood rushes back. He focuses on the pain and doesn’t think about how in a few hours, he’ll have to say goodbye for good.

 

2.  
They were at the pub down the street from their apartment, and Mark was playing the third wheel again.

“Look, Mark,” Peter said when Juliet went to the loo, “Can you at least pretend to like Juliet when you’re around her?”

“I don’t have a problem with Juliet,” Mark said, taking a sip from his beer and setting the glass down just a little too hard.

“That would be easier to believe if you hadn’t been glaring at the table between the two of us for the last half hour.”

“If you’re not going to believe me, I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Just tell me the truth. Is it the way she squeezes the toothpaste from the middle and then leaves the tube in the sink with the cap off?” Peter laughs. “I’ve asked her to stop that before, but I can try again.”

“No,” Mark snaps, and Peter leans back in his seat. Mark sighs. “I’m sorry, no,” he says again. “Juliet is lovely and she makes you very happy and I _don’t_ have a problem with her.”

“You have a problem with something,” Peter says, raising his voice slightly. 

“I like you,” Mark blurts out. “I don’t like that you’re with Juliet, because I like you.”

“Oh,” Peter says, after a moment. 

“I should go,” Mark says. When he slides out of the booth, Juliet is standing there with her mouth open.”

“Great,” Mark says under his breath. “Fantastic.”

\--

Mark is hiding in his room, with plans to stay there for at least a month, when he hears Peter get back to the flat. It doesn’t take long for the whispered voices to start, and he can’t believe that Peter actually brought Juliet back. Why couldn’t he let Mark be miserable without compounding it further?

There’s a knock on his door. “Mark?” Juliet says, “I know you’re probably having a marvelous time beating yourself up in there right now, but will you come out anyway?”

Mark lets his head drop to his chest, but pushes himself to his feet and opens the door. Juliet is standing right in front of him, but Peter is hanging back, a few steps away, with his hands in his pockets. Mark crosses his arms and leans against the door frame. “What?” he asks curtly.

“We both like you, Mark,” Peter says.

“And wouldn’t it be great it we didn’t let this get in the way of our friendship,” Mark interrupts. “Yeah, yeah, that’s just fine.”

“No,” Juliet says, reaching out to touch Mark’s shoulder, “we _like you_.”

Mark looks at Juliet’s hand and back to Peter. “What are you getting at?”

“We’re intrigued by what you admitted,” Peter says.

“And we wondered what your feelings were for me,” Juliet finishes, “if you would be interested in seeing if anything could develop.”

Mark lets his arms drop to his sides. “This is definitely not what I was expecting.”

“If you need to consider it, we understand,” Peter says. “But we talked about, and it’s something we want to try if you do.”

“I think I’m interested,” Mark says. Juliet smiles at that and steps in to him. She reaches up on her toes and kisses him slowly, sweetly. “Yeah,” Mark says quietly. “I’m interested.”

“Good,” Peter says, and walks over to them. Juliet interlaces her fingers with Mark’s and squeezes. This time it’s Peter who leans down to kiss Mark. 

Mark gives himself over to it, to both of them. 

 

3.  
Mark sucks on Peter’s collarbone and is rewarded with a groan and Peter’s fingers digging into his hips. He works his way down Peter’s body, sucking and kissing every inch of skin he can get his lips on.

Peter’s hand comes to rest on the top of Mark’s head when he licks down the crease of his thigh and presses his mouth against the side of Peter’s cock.

“Mark, I...,” Peter starts, but Mark quickly cuts him off. He looks up from between Peter’s legs, locking eyes with him.

“Do you want this?” Mark asks.

“Yes,” Peter breaths out.

“So do I,” Mark says, and takes Peter’s cock into his mouth. 

Mark groans. Everything--the taste of Peter, the weight on his tongue, the feel of Peter’s fingers pulling his hair--feels so right. It’s the best possible culmination of five miserable months of wanting.

Mark focuses on his work, breathing through his nose as he inches his way further down Peter’s cock until he absolutely cannot go any further. 

Peter keeps up a steady stream of noises that sound like they start in the back of his throat, but come out as mewls. Mark is working the underside of Peter’s cock with his tongue when the noises stop and Peter’s other hand grabs at Mark’s hair too.

“I’m gonna come,” Peter says with a warning tone in his voice.

Mark doesn’t stop to say good, though he thinks it. The corners of his mouth turn up into a smile as much as they can, while he keeps sucking until Peter does come. He pulls off and swallows, feeling pretty self-satisfied, and lies down, pillowing his head on Peter’s thigh.

Mark can feel Peter’s whole body move with his breaths, gradually slowing to normal. “Come up here,” Peter says then, grabbing at Mark’s shoulder.

Mark shimmies back up Peter’s body and Peter cups the back of his head and pulls him down to press their mouths together. Peter works his other hand in between them and wraps it around Mark’s cock as he pushes his tongue into Mark’s mouth.

Mark’s whole body feels like it’s on fire. He thrusts his hips, fucking Peter’s hand more than receiving a hand job. It’s over embarrassingly quickly; with one last thrust that coincides with Peter biting down on his shoulder, he comes all over Peter’s hand. 

Mark flops to the side, staring at the ceiling and feeling the tingle in his shoulder where Peter marked him. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Peter wipe his hand off on his own chest. The site of Peter covered in his come is enough to make him realize he could be ready to do this again sooner rather than later.

“We have to do that again,” Peter says, rolling on his side to look at Mark.

Mark mirrors his movement. “Yeah, we do,” he agrees.

“Not just again,” Peter says. “We have to do that all the time.”

“All the time?” Mark asks cautiously. Being able to call Peter his is more than he ever hoped for.

Peter leans in and kisses him again, gentle--not just about sex.

“I can go for all the time,” Mark says.

“You’ll come to this party with me, then?” Peter asks.

“Not this party again,” Mark whines. “It’s a lot harder to say no while we’re naked in bed.”

“I know,” Peter grins. “That’s why I thought if I asked again now I might be able to get you to change your answer.”

Mark just stares at him.

“Come on, it will be a lot more fun with you there.”

\--

As it turns out, it’s not terrible. Peter sticks by his side the whole night. And no matter how many girls his rugby mates try to introduce him to, “This is Jen, this is Kelly, this is Juliet,” he never stops looking at Mark.


End file.
